Black Bean Soup and Spicy Corn Muffins

Today is your lucky day. I am posting our Black Bean Soup and Corn Muffin recipe that we made for our dinner party on Sunday. Both were a hit!

I love making this Black Bean Soup. It is so easy and healthy! It has lots of veggies and fiber. You can throw it together in no time and the leftovers are great. I think it even tastes better the next day. We usually eat it all, but you can freeze it too! It is pretty cheap to make, stock up on the canned items when they are on sale!

We also made Dorie's Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins. We have made the Corniest Corn muffins before and loved them, but this time we were in a spicy mood:) The jalapeno, red pepper, chili powder, and cilantro give these muffins quite the kick! They have the perfect amount of heat and they are pretty, I like the specks of green and red:) They go perfectly with this soup too! We did muffins and we also did an 8 by 8 Pyrex pan. Both ways work well. Let them cool before serving. We ate one right out of the oven and it was a little crumbly, but they will set up. Just be patient!

Maria’s Black Bean Soup

Olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
Crushed red pepper-to taste
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 ears of fresh corn, cut off the cob (can use frozen or canned)
3 cans diced tomatoes (I use reduced sodium)
2 cans of black beans (I use reduced sodium)
2 cans of chicken or vegetable broth (fat free, low sodium)
2 cups of water
Chili Powder-to taste
Cumin-to taste
Salt-to taste
Pepper-to taste
Chopped cilantro (about a half of a bunch)
Juice of 1-2 limes

Heat oil in a big soup pot. Cook onion until tender. Add in garlic, crushed red pepper, and jalapeno. Cook for about a minute. Add in peppers and corn. Saute until tender. Add in tomatoes, black beans, broth, and water. Stir. Add in your spices. I never measure these. Sorry! So just add in according to taste! Stir and throw in chopped cilantro. Squirt in lime juice and stir. Let simmer to enhance flavors. Taste after awhile to see if more spices need to be added. It is that simple!! You can serve it with cheese, sour cream, chips, etc. but I like to keep this one healthy! The flavors are so good alone.

Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my Home to Yours

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal - stone ground is best
3 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 cup buttermilk
8 T unsalted butter - melted and cooled
1 large egg
1/4 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels- We used fresh!
1 small jalapeno - seeded if you wish
1/4 red bell pepper finely diced
2 T cilantro - finely chopped-we added a little more!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with liners or spray well.
Whisk together all purpose flour , cornmeal, salt, sugar, baking powder, chili powder, baking soda and black pepper and set aside.

In another large bowl lightly whisk egg yolk, buttermilk and melted butter till blended. Pour liquid into the dry ingredients. Add chopped cilantro, jalapeno and diced bell pepper to the mixture. Divide batter into muffin pans lined with paper muffin cups. I also used a 8 inch Pyrex dish and it worked great! Just spray it well!

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the tops are brown. Cool muffins on a rack before serving.